Shared Source Licensing Programs

This program allows eligible enterprise customers, state and local governments access to Microsoft Windows® source code for internal development and support purposes, including debugging. This enables customers to develop and support their internally deployed applications and solutions that run on the Windows platform.

This program allows eligible Microsoft MVPs (Most Valuable Professionals) the opportunity to apply for Windows® Shared Source access. The MVPSLP provides participants with increased visibility into Microsoft Windows source code, enriching customer and community support for those organizations using the Windows platform.

This program enables Systems Integrators to provide their customers with more in-depth knowledge of the Windows platform, deliver deep security analysis and privacy verification, more rapidly troubleshoot customer issues, and offer performance tuning for custom applications running on the Windows platform. The SISLP enhances Systems Integrators' ability to support customers and provide consultation using the Windows platform through source code access.

This program allows eligible OEM customers access to Windows source code as a reference for the development and end-user support of Windows-based OEM hardware products.

This program helps national governments and international organizations address the unique security concerns they face in the digital age. The GSP provides participants with the information and source code access needed to evaluate the security of Microsoft products.

This program supplies universities with concepts, code, and projects useful for integrating core Windows® kernel technologies into teaching and research. The program includes Windows Curriculum Resource Kit, ProjectOZ, and Windows Research Kernel.

This program provides access to Windows CE source code. Source-level debugging saves valuable time throughout the embedded development process by eliminating the guesswork about how code is interacting with the kernel or other low-level operating system code.

This program gives professors, researchers, and graduate students the ability to create curriculum, including textbooks and other teaching materials, that includes Windows CE 5.0 source code.

The Windows CE Shared Source Premium Derivatives License gives partner companies full access to the Windows CE Shared Source Premium code and the ability to create derivatives of the source code for the purposes of optimizing their Windows CE-based hardware and software. Partner companies are also encouraged to use the Shared Source Premium code to provide feedback to Microsoft on how to improve the source code and/or development tools.

The Windows CE Shared Source Premium Derivatives Redistribution License gives partner companies full access to the Windows CE Shared Source Premium code, the rights to create derivatives of the source code for the purposes of optimizing Windows CE-based hardware and software, and the ability to provide feedback to Microsoft on the Windows CE source code and development tools. In addition, partner companies can create derivative works of the Windows CE source code that can be included in Windows CE-based shipping devices.

This program enables developers and other interested individuals to access and use source code from specific ASP.NET Starter Kits and other ASP.NET samples. The program permits anyone to use, modify, and redistribute the licensed code for both commercial and noncommercial purposes, including the creation and distribution of derivative Windows-based applications.

The FlexWiki Shared Source toolset provides a way for Windows developers to deliver collaborative web authoring environments and allows those developers to establish web-based communities (on their intranets or on the Internet) to enable collaboration on the software they develop.

IronPython is the code name for the new implementation of Python, a dynamic programming language on the .NET Framework. IronPython is well-integrated with the .NET Framework, thus exposing all of the .NET libraries to Python programmers. The goal of IronPython is to bring the power of .NET to Python and the power of Python to .NET.

Microsoft Business Solutions Business Portal Lite is a thin client solution that provides time and expense reporting, approvals, Web project analyst, and communicator alert capabilities from most Web browsers, including Microsoft Internet Explorer, Safari, and Firefox. Business Portal Lite is built using Active Server Pages (ASP) and Microsoft .NET technologies and works seamlessly with Microsoft Business Solutions Solomon® 6.0 SP1 (now part of Microsoft Dynamics™ SL).

Microsoft Research partners with research organizations and universities to combine the academic community's expertise with the learning sciences with Microsoft's expertise in technology. A variety of tools, software, and presentations from Microsoft Research researchers is available for download via the Microsoft Research Downloads Web Site.

The Common Language Infrastructure (CLI) is the European Computer Manufacturers Association (ECMA) standard that describes the core of the .NET Framework. The Shared Source CLI (SSCLI) is the source code to a working implementation of the ECMA CLI and C# language specifications. The SSCLI goes beyond the printed ECMA standard, providing a runtime, class libraries, C# & JScript.NET compilers, debugger, tools, a Platform Adaption Layer (PAL), a portable build system and a comprehensive test suite. The SSCLI will be of interest to academics and researchers wishing to teach and explore modern programming language concepts, and to .NET developers interested in how the technology works. This implementation builds and runs on Windows XP, the FreeBSD operating system, and Mac OS X 10.2, and is released under a non-commercial shared-source license.

This program provides developers and other interested parties with a rich set of technologies that enable them to build applications for smart devices. The SDDSSLP permits licensees to use, modify, and redistribute the licensed source code samples for noncommercial and commercial purposes.

The Windows Embedded Source Tools for Bluetooth Technology program provides a Win32 API Wrapper that developers can expose in Visual Studio .NET or the .NET Compact Framework, reducing the amount of code needed to develop for Bluetooth Technologies and making it easier to create compelling Windows Mobile and Windows CE Bluetooth applications.

Developers and interested individuals can access and use source code from the Visual Studio 2005 Starter Kits licensed under the Microsoft Permissive License from the Shared Source Initiative. The starter kits are projects designed to help developers get up and running with a useful application quickly and easily. Designed with best practices, extensibility, and customization in mind, each starter kit contains code for a complete application and documentation on how to modify or expand the application. The license allows the developer to modify and redistribute the source code or binary code for either commercial or non-commercial use. The starter kits are fully functional as standalone, sample applications that may be used in learning scenarios or as building blocks for developing custom applications.

The Visual Studio .NET Academic Tools Source Licensing Program enables professors, students, academic researchers, and independent developers to access and use source code for specific tools that can be used with Microsoft's Visual Studio.

The Windows Installer XML (WiX) is a toolset for advanced Windows developers that builds Windows installation packages from XML source code.

The Windows Template Library (WTL) helps C++ developers build lightweight graphical user interface (GUI)-style applications for Windows. Functionally, WTL is a light-weight windowing template library for C++ that provides support for many Windows user interface elements.

National laws, practices, enforcement policies, and attitudes toward intellectual-property protection are reviewed in determining where Microsoft source code can be made available. See this page for geographic market eligibility information.